Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Role Playing

I hope I haven't posted this flower before; I like it, but I don't feel like checking for it in previous posts.

I read three kinds of blogs with moderate regularity -- blogs about faith, about technology and about knitting. I'm eclectic. I write for two"kinds" of blogs --this one with daily regularity and a knitting blog with great irregularity. I try not to let the two cross purposes, assuming that the few people who read them are not interested in the other topic.

That's a long introduction to say that I was reading The Yarn Harlot (See, if you aren't a knitter, you just won't get that.). She was ranting (her word, not mine) about society's view of the roles of men and women. I agree with her in so many ways....

We do both men and women a disservice with our assumptions about what each should be doing in family life.

Saying that men "babysit" their own children is insulting to men. It assumes that men don't provide genuine parenting to their children. I've heard one mother say, "I can leave one of my children with his father, but not both of them -- he wouldn't be able to handle it."

Asking a women if she feels guilty when she has to go out of town for work implies that a "real" mother wouldn't leave her children to go work in the world.

I was listening to the radio this morning -- it was a talk show, and the topic was how to help your children be more organized with school work. One woman shared an idea that she had used with her children, but her description of it assumed that it would only be the mother signing papers, reading school work, and helping the child. Why would we make that assumption?

Don't even get my husband started on his reaction to "Choosy mothers choose Jif." He hates it.